Nokia CEO Feels Google is Stifling its Open Ecosystem, Making it More Closed

During Nokia’s Q4 earnings conference, CEO Stephen Elop had some choice words about Android. Mainly, that Android has become a closed ecosystem “quite recently.”

“The situation that Android is facing, where the amount of fragmentation that you’re seeing is increasing as people take it in different directions, is of course offset by Google’s efforts to turn an open ecosystem into something that’s quite a bit more closed as you’ve seen quite recently,” Elop said.

Elop doesn’t go into detail about what he’s referring to when he says closed, but he could be talking about Google’s decision to ditch Exchange ActiveSync support, TheVerge noted. Additionally, Elop’s remark could be read into him talking about Google’s reluctance to support the Windows Phone 8 platform, which is a big blow for Microsoft and its users.

So is Google becoming a closed system? Not while it’s still making excellent apps for iOS—Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, etc.